The Commander Series Forum

Two weeks ago with my club we organised a little convention in our area, near Nancy, East of France...

And our little coldwar community had its first tournament !

It was even international, a friend from belgium came along

We had 8 players (soviet ; iraq ; france; usa ; uk ; poland ; south africa), the reference year for the games was 1989 and we played 3 battles during the day.

We had to play on relatively small table du to surface matters (1m20 x 1m20) with 3000 points battlegroups.

It was a glorious day and in the end a soviet player emerged victorious (followed by france and us ex aequo).

I leave you with some pictures, and if by any chance one of you is around and looking for game partenrs, you're more than welcome !

Nice one!

Do you have the army lists also?

That is outstanding

Please send me an invite in good time for next year as I'd love to come across & play ... mt French however is as bad as my dice-throwing

That looks ace

Like that desert hex terrain especially!

Excellent!

Thanks for your appreciation

I will let you know in advance when will be the next tornament (should be next year, end of july).

The hex board is the work of our friend Renaud (moustache guy with iron maiden T-shirt).

As for the list I can give you the soviet winning one :
1 CO (10) ; 2 HQ (9) ; 12 T-62 E ; 3 Spetsnaz ; 6 conscripts ; 3 120mm mortars ; 4 trucks ; 2 Hind-E ; 2 SA-9.

If +10 % : 1 FAO ; 3 RPG-7 ; 2 203mm 2S7 artillery
If +25 : 2 more conscripts ; 1 more 2S7 ; 1 Mil-mi 8 Hip ; 2 RPG-27

We use a house rule reagrding AA/SAM units : they can shoot aircraft at half range without LOS. We end up with very good results, helos are still very popular but players don't feel defenseless against them. And SAM units are more popular than ever. Give it a try !

Isn't that illegal?
Only 6 conscripts in a 3000 point game...
Require 3 per 1000 points!

But I like the command!
3 upgraded Command Units with Rigid tactics...

We decided for 3 infantry per 1000 points, spetsnatz being infantry it s'all right.

Yep, 3 upgraded command with rigid tactics... And spetsnatz with recce hability !

Hi folks,

So, some of you asked me to let them know when next tournament will be held, here goes :

Next tournament will happen in the small city of Houdemont the 6th of August 2016.

Here is the place: 48°38'50.2"N 6°10'43.2"E (great city nearby is Nancy).

New house rule this year to balance thinks for "small" nations : you can add 1 command point to your command unit (HQ & CO only) by paying twice the price (this is no news), but, you can do that as much as you want as long as you dont get above 10.

Then, if you have a HQ with a 7 command value for 45 points, you can get 8 command value for 90, 9 for 180 or 10 for 360. And you can't get above 10.

And by the way, cause it's always nice to put a face on a name, on the pictures I'm the guy with glasses, beard and a striped white / grey shirt (in the middle on the 12th picture).

Did you do it again?

Ho boy, did I forget to update this post !

Yes, yes we totaly did ! I will post pictures this week.

Well, this year tornament was a little bit smaller (6 players) beacause I was focusing on organization (the whole event was a little bigger) and one of our player was injured (don't laugh, he had his hand broken, way too long to play a game in his condition).

The winner was our Belgian friend with his US list. This year we also had an iranian list which did all right.

By the way, we have another tornament planned : 4th of march 2017, still in Nancy, this time it will be team of two competing against each other. If by any chance any of you could make it, he would be more than welcome.

Great, look forward to seeing the pictures

Seconded!

Might be worth popping the next on the Pendraken forum as well...

Ok, sorry I have been late !

Here goes :















So, this new hex table you can see is my work, still expanding on it (rivers and such).

If any of you wants to see more of what my club as been doing, here is the link to our Cwc topic, on our forum :

http://lesloupsdutemeraire.forumactif.org/...

There you will be able to see our campaign wich was the invasion of a fictitious country by an occidental coalition. We had a lot of fun, especialy creating the whole background and such. Camapaign rules are also there... Of course all that is in french...

I had plan to come to joy of 6 this year, but me and my wife will be expecting a newcommer in the family at that time (a new 6mm player for sure !).

Finaly I am a bit sad to say that the interest for coldwar commander as been dying down a little theese days at my club...

We really need a new version of the game (nothing too fancy, just a good ruling on the main problems and a better point system) and a french translation would be great -already offered the translation for the actual version to Leon a while ago.

Looks like a good time was had by all. Great looking tables. Where is the Control Tower model from? Be fantastic if you can make Joy of Six we are putting on a 20' x 6' Cold War Commander game.

Cheers

Richard P

That looks like a cracking venue btw!

So, the Control Tower is from the great people of Leven Miniatures, you can find it here :

http://www.levenminiatures.co.uk/pages/military.htm

They are really doing a great job, you can buy from them anytime. They are also responsive if you get any trouble regarding delivery, they are even happy to receive pictures of your realisation with their buildings.

Next time I will send you pics from the team-tornament. We will be using chess clock as well, to keep the pace going.

Anyway, I would have love to come to the joy 6 and meet some of you. Hope I will be abble to make it one of theese days !

Thanks I must have missed that one from Leven as I have bought a load of stuff off Mick in the past.

Thanks

Richard P

Hi folks,

So this is some pics of our team tornament.

There were 4 teams of 2 persons each. There were only 2 tables needed.

3 games during the day, three scenarios (the same we used in the other tornaments).

A point ranking system was conceived, with specific bonus for certain achievement (destroying aircraft, killing HQ...).

The real new thing here was the use of chess stopwatch in order to secure a strict equality between player. Each team had 1h15 for each game (that would be 2h30 per game). Each player had a 1500 points budget. So each team was a 3000 point army.

We had some little homemade rules, the usual we used for previous tornament, and some added flavor for the team spirit (HQ of one player could command units of the other player with a malus...).

Regarding the team we had :
Team A : French / Iranian
Team B : USA / Spain (an homemade list)
Team C : Israel / Canada (homemade list as well)
Team D : Soviet / Polish

The year was 1989.

Here you can see the two tables :





There goes the teams :

From left to right :
France / Iran / Polish (my team mate, I was playing soviet and teaking the picture)/ Israel / Canadian (super enthusiast) / US (partially hidden) / Spain








The dreaded timer, you can see it in the middle of the pic, that little blue and white thing really spiced things up.



And the turnign point... My team is losing the tornament on this very instant, for my lack of using smoke properly... I shall be haunted by this moment all along my wargamer life...



In conclusion, we had a GREAT time. Games were really heated, the team spirit was high and the tornament was both exhausting and really satisfying.

Considering stopwatch it's a fun idea, but you have to be in a competitive mood, I think it won't go well with your typical quiet week-end game.

In the end the French - Iranian pair won, due to great tactics and a very efficient unit selection. I also have to give credit to my Iranian playing friend who mastered the art of hand to hand combat to make up for his lack of great armored unit. I'm sure many player would be surprised by how efficient you can get with enough infantry and a sharp tactical mind.

My soviet / polish team arrived second, and we had great fun. Next was the US / spanish pair and finally the Canadian / Israelian team.

I said it before, but I will say it again : it still amaze me how coldwar commander works so good to play both historical acurate game and competitive game. I don't know much game system that do adapt to both.

We really need a new version... Nothing much to change, just some tiny things and a good reprint...
Also we cannot let "Team Yankee" become the reference for coldwar wargaming

Great report as always. Love hearing about your games over the Channel. Now Pendraken have released BKC III they are going to start work on CWC II but it will take some time I believe. Like you say not much to change just some little things like ATGM's. I agree we can't let Team Yankee take over

Cheers

Richard P

Good stuff, looks cracking!

Excellent stuff, we'll have to organise a road trip (one direction or the other) for some international gaming!

22-23rd of July, I am managing my hometown wargame convention for the third time.

You are all more than welcome to come.

I give you the adress, you can type it in google map :

"rue des saules 54180 Houdemont FRANCE"

Great city nearby is Nancy, plenty of acomodation there, not far away from Luxembourg airport, or Basel Airport. (cheap flight from London to Basel, I used it to go to SALUTE).

Hopefully, I will be at Joy of Six 2018

You are welcome to join the Cold War Commanders at Joy of Six 2018 i'm sure we will be there

Cheers

Richard P

Well I did consider a trip to France in July, but sadly that week is already booked up! Maybe next year? If not see you at Jof6 2018!